This invention relates in general to an apparatus for transporting receiver members in a reproduction machine, and more particularly to an improved cooling device associated with a transport apparatus for receiver members heated by a fuser assembly of a reproduction machine.
In typical reproduction machines, such as copiers or printers or the like, pigmented thermoplastic marking particles are placed on a receiver member (such as a cut sheet of plain paper or transparency material) in an image-wise pattern. The receiver member is transported along a path through a fuser assembly which permanently fixes the marking particle image to the receiver member by application of heat and pressure. With the marking particle image fixed to the receiver member, such member is then delivered to an output tray for operator retrieval.
While heat and pressure fusing has been found to be efficient for permanently fixing a marking particle image to a receiver member, the heat and pressure may have an adverse effect on the receiver member material. Particularly, the receiver member may warp or curl to an unacceptable extent. Additionally, if the heat absorbed by the receiver member material is not quickly dissipated, the receiver member may be too hot to be comfortably handled by the operator. Further, when a plurality of receiver members are stacked in an output tray, if sufficient cooling of the receiver members has not occurred, the respective marking particle images may still be tacky enough to cause adjacent receiver members to stick together.
In order to overcome the aforementioned heat and pressure induced receiver member handling problems in reproduction machines, the transport apparatus for the receiver members may include a cooling device for dissipating the heat from the receiver members. An example of such a cooling device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,097 (issued Oct. 21, 1975, in the name of Wurl). In the cooling device of such patent, a housing located between the fuser assembly and the output has a flat guide plate in juxtaposition with the receiver member transport path. The guide plate has a plurality of heat transfer (cooling) fins on the opposite side of the plate from receiver member transport path. Such fins are oriented in a direction substantially transverse to the direction of movement of a receiver member along the receiver member transport path. The housing is in flow communication with a blower which provides a flow of cooling air over the heat transfer fins.
While the above described cooling device has generally been found to be effective in removing heat from the receiver members, and reducing their curl, it does have limitations as to the amount of heat it can dissipate for a given number and configuration of heat transfer fins and a selected blower size. With the more productive reproduction machines in common use today, or at extreme environmental conditions, the number and configuration of heat transfer fins or the size of the blower necessary to produce the desired cooling of receiver members may exceed physical size, electrical power, or acoustic noise constraints for a given reproduction machine.